Shopping for flowers to send to your valentine, you may find a well-received and frankly less expensive option than the traditional full-fledged floral bouquet. Colorful, easy to mail in a flat envelope, for a few cents. The Pop-up Flower.
There are a few designers ready to deliver a nice Colorful Paper flower. Of course, writing this and looking at the scene from my point of view, I have some bias and also a designer’s experience.
Watch out for:
- Size. Being involved previously in the design of Glass Christmas Ornaments, one thing will remain forever in my mind. The surprised remarks of clients looking for the first time:” THEY ARE SO BIG”. Our manufacturer, located in Poland, kept sending big samples because there was a legend about US customers preferring BIG. While quality Glass ornaments tend to be quite expensive, the size still matters.
- Very few people have the space to store them throughout the year. Big Pop-up bouquets can be quite welcome at first, but due to the space they take up to display, they are withering in the eyes of the recipient and are being disposed of rather quickly. Practicality matters.
- In my eyes, the focus should be on staying power. The Detail, finish, and overall quality always help. People appreciate the craftsmanship and remember the sender. Of course, the kind of aesthetics you are going to choose from is only yours, and there is plenty to choose from. Not only the Flowers. For example, our Amelia Earhart’s pop-up paper airplane found its use as a boy’s Party Invitation.
- Be Prepared. Probably every man on Earth was reprimanded and enjoyed a couple of Silent Days because he forgot some anniversary date. My idea to prevent such a disaster is to have a Gift stashed for emergency measures. Pop-ups are perfect. Always Fresh, Easy to hide in a fold of a book. During one of our shows, we displayed a sign: How many birthdays, anniversaries, and Valentines are you facing this year? Arm yourself. It helped, since many people bought multiple pop-ups from us.
- Pop-ups are more than a flat postcard; not easy to forget or ignore.
- To help you out, below is a list of a few makers I prefer. Not necessarily focusing on Flowers.
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GRAPHICS3inc.com, Probably OLDEST in the US. They make pop-up cards powered up with rubber bands. Selling mostly to business Customers. Repeat business, since any business that has tried, enjoys double-digit response rates.
(They do not have many flower-related designs, but the originality and quality are the TOP)
SANTORO
https://www.santoro-london.com/
An extensive selection of various types of Pop-up Cards that you are not going to find anywhere else.
Me&McQ 3D Cards & Pop Up Cards
PaperBee.net
Or you can use SmartPaperCuts.com
To reach us.
We focus on Flowers, adding currently some Victorian-style Christmas Paper Ornaments. Ornaments because we enjoy Christmas. Paper is not breakable like glass, and delivers a similar experience when properly done.
There is much, much more, as you probably already discovered.
Like the Love popups, Fresh Cut paper, Pop-life, etc.
The reason I am not listing them here is that I am looking for the Top quality, not the Vietnam, China-originated mass production stuff, which is sometimes quite nicely made but not very original. With designs based on 99.9% of the so-called Parallel Fold, or Trellis construction. Like it is shown on the right side.
When it comes to quality design, you may notice that, for example, all FreshCut pop-ups are photographed from the very front, to maintain the illusion of the 3-dimensional shape. The side view reveals the flats. They are exactly the issues I, as a designer, must pay attention to maintain a certain quality. Of course, if you like the look, go for it. I prefer to be “picky”
If you think I should list all, regardless of the overall quality, please let me know.
Jacek @ alfac.us
The popularity of paper flowers, no doubt, is growing, since recently I saw in Rome a few Paper pop-up bouquets made by an Italian company, claiming that they were the first to come up with such an idea. Good for them.